Overview for Businesses in Great Britain

When you sell goods overseas, the VAT is zero-rated but you still need to make a customs declaration.

This applies when you sell goods to:

• a VAT-registered business in a different country
• an EU consumer and the goods have a value of £135 (€150) or more per consignment
• an EU consumer and destination VAT settings have not been applied

Before you start, make sure you have an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number starting with GB.

HMRC guide to exporting goods from UK (opens in new tab)

 NOTE: Before creating an invoice, you'll need to create the customer and register them to the country that you are selling to. Read more about creating a customer contact.

To create a sales invoice you need to:

1. Go to Sales, Sales Invoices, and select New Invoice.
2. In the Customer field, select your overseas customer from the list, or type the customer name. If the customer is not a saved contact, select Add a customer to create a record for them.
3. On the first invoice line, select a product from the list, or start typing its name to find it. If the product is not a saved item, enter a description for the item or select Create item to create a record for it.
4. In Goods/Services select Goods (and related services). The VAT rate will be zero-rated and you can't edit.
   Repeat on a new line for as many items as you need to add to your invoice.
5. Select Save.

The VAT return

Sales of goods to all overseas businesses and consumers are reported in Box 6 - total value of sales and all other outputs excluding any VAT.

The VAT on sales is zero rated so there is no VAT value recorded on the return.

Return to invoicing overseas from Great Britain